Community & Current Events

10 Surprising facts about Canada

Happy Canada Day! Think you know it all about the Great White North? These Canadian truths just might teach you a thing or two about our country.

1. Thank a newbie translation error for the name "Canada". In 1535, two young Huron-Iroquois described the route to "kanata" to Jacques Cartier. He took it to be the name of the entire land. Not so: "Kanata" just means "village".

3. "O Canada," our national anthem since 1880, might be borrowed from none other than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Experts note that our song sounds suspiciously similar to "March of the Priests" from Mozart's The Magic Flute.

4. The longest place name in Canada is—get ready Pekwachnamaykoskwaskwaypinwanik Lake in Manitoba. The 31-letter word is Cree for "where wild trout are caught by fishing with hooks."

5. Canada's largest national park is Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Alberta and the southern North West Territories, at more than 44,000 square kilometres. That's bigger than Switzerland! Find out here about smaller parks closer to home!

6. Canada produces 80 percent of the world's maple syrup, and 91 percent of that is made in Quebec. We also export almost 10,000,000 litres of the sweet stuff per year—more than $145 million delicious sticky dollars. Here are four great recipes featuring maple syrup!

8. The CN Tower stays upright thanks to internal post-tension cables that cannot be replaced. They're designed to last 300 years, at which point Toronto is looking at a very expensive demolition.

9. Quebec City's fortification walls, built in 1695, make Quebec City the oldest walled city north of Mexico. UNESCO declared the city a protected World Heritage Site in 1985. Discover Quebec City’s must-see hot spots!

10. Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne's children's book character written for his son Christopher Robin, was inspired by a black polar bear at the London Zoo in Regent Park. But did you know the bear was Canadian? In our honour, his full name is "Winnipeg."